The Evolution Of A Deck Of Cards: Suits
Cards were not introduced into Medieval Europe until the second half of the 14th century. At this time they were referred to as “Saracen Cards,” and were brought to Europe by merchants. Cities were burgeoning with rural folk who had survived the Plague and moved to the urban centers. Here, they became a new group of middle class merchants and craftspeople. With the easing of the poverty and ignorance that marked the middle ages, new trade groups, guilds, and universities began to emerge once again, and science was no longer relegated to sorcerers. There was more time for the pursuit of pleasure, leisure, and play.
In the early days of the Renaissance, books, cards and prints were created by hand. Card games were spread across Italy by a society of art appreciators formed at this time. At the end of the–th century many key cities in Europe including Viterbo near Rome, Paris and Barcelona, were able to obtain illuminated manuscripts of card manuals. Traveling artists and scholars spread these manuscripts across the continent and their popularity flourished. Early in the 15th century, a lone artisan was enough to satisfy the demand of a city. By mid-century, however, there became a need for several shops devoted to their creation.
Because this was a somewhat foreign form of amusement, not everybody embraced it. Some felt it threatened the fabric of society’s mores and morals. They saw it as a game where gamblers and bettors were in cahoots with the devil. During the protestant Reformation cards were rather dramatically referred to as “devil pictures.”
In spite of or because of this, the popularity of cards persisted. Even Mary, Queen of Scots was a major bettor and enjoyed the game, shockingly, even on Sunday. The compleat Gamester was published in the late 17th century in London, relating details of more than a dozen games and their basic strategies. Particular facilities – casini – were established in Venice for aristocrats and courtesans especially for card games. From these Venice casini, a game called primero found its way all over Europe and was transformed into poker some time later.
In time, women as well as men, farmers and merchants as well as courtesans and nobles were able to enter the games and found symbols of themselves represented in the cards. A Swedish deck that became very much the rage, was comprised of these suits in order of ranking: sun, king, queen, knight, dame, valet and maid. Those ribald Florentines played with cards that pictured nude dames and dancers, with the dancers being the low suit.
Interestingly, the number of cards in a deck at the time was not standard, consisting of 30-40 or 52 cards. The designs also varied considerably. The suits most preferred were symbolic of wealth, food, military security as well as popular sports of the court:, coins, cups, sabers and clubs. Some of the symbols familiar to us today were typical of those in France: in red, Coeurs (hearts) stood for the church, and correaux (a rectangular floor tile) was a sign of the merchant class; in black, piques (spear and arrow heads) represented state authority, and trefles (trefoil clover leaf) denoted farmers. Somewhere along the line, a brave artisan exchanged the vice-royals symbol with queens.
Eventually a deck of cards made it to the form that we all recognize and understand today. 52 cards of- different ranks make up 4 different suits. Clubs, Spades, Diamonds and Hearts make up the suits, while Ace, King, Queen, and Jack make up the card ranks rounded out by ten through two.
The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Gutshot Rakeback as well as Betfair Rakeback.
